I'm not big on Scotch nor i know a lot about it short of "it's made in Scotland and they can use used barrels" but all scotch (and irish whiskey while i'm at it) i'v tried share the same "smoked" flavor both in taste and aroma.

Why? What is it that gives it that smoked taste and smell? And is it really ALL scotch whiskey or is it just so happens that all i've tried have that smokiness but there's others out there that do not?

If you want to taste sherried vs smokey Scotch, look for "Speyside" on the bottle. 99% of Speysiders are unpeated. Inexpensive ones would include Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, and Cragganmore (Cragganmore 12 is a cracking dram at the less than extortionate price of $45-$50).

After the barley is "malted" (sprouted), it has to be dried quickly in a kiln. If not, the sprouting will go too far, consuming the precious fermentable sugars and adding nasty tasting elements. In both Irish and Scotch whiskies, this is done by raking the malt out onto a large floor, under which a fire is burning to heat the floor. In Scotland, the smoke is allowed to enter the room with the malt as it dries. Some distilleries add peat (old, combustible, decayed heather, which covers much of Scotland's valleys and coastal lowlands) to the fire, which imparts a unique aroma and flavor. Smoke without peat has a dry, woody character useful for balancing the "sweetness" of the malt whiskey. Peaty smoke is oily-sweet. Some scotches take this to an extreme and are real peat-bombs, which a cynic might describe as gasoline or motor oil, intended for use by blenders as a flavor element. If the malt is more moderately peated, the peat-smoke will impart a unique flowery-oily smell. In Highland Park (from Orkney), the peat is younger, and will be more heather-flowery. On the west coast, and on Isla, the peat is older and deeper, further along in its eventual transformation to lignite (and eventually to coal), and will therefore have a more coal-tar or medicinal quality that you either love or hate. On Isla, peat affects the whiskey in another way, by way of the water. The water used in Isla whiskies runs through peat bogs, so it picks up quite a bit of that coal-tar flavor. So, if you drink a malt like Lagavilin, see if you can distinguish the difference between the peaty-water and the peat-smoke elements.

Attended a whiskey event in NYC last night at the Roosevelt Hotel put on my the Malt Whiskey Society and The Robb Report. Lots of scotch and some irish. Point made in the previous post regarding Highland Park having a 'young' peat as opposed to the 'older' peat from Islay is not true. The peat in Orkney is as old as the peat in the south. The difference is there is very little wood in the peat from Orkney so it is predominately heather. The peat in Islay contains a good amount of wood and that's what makes it so intense.

Two of the best whiskeys I tasted last night was an 11 yr old Talisker finished in sherry and a 16 Lagavulin also finished in sherry.

A lot of malt whisky (single malt) has no peat at all in the malt. Many blends don't emphasize the peated side but most probably have a hint of it, e.g. Dewar's, Ballantine's.

Take Abelour say, or the regular Macallan, or Glenmorangie, there is no peat in them and I don't find them smoky. The band-aid taste is probably malt congeners which are still noticeable often even in older ages, but I'm probably used to it and don't view it that way. (Just as I insist Irish pure pot still is waxy but I know many people who say that can't detect that in it).

Taste is as always and forever personal, and things hit people differently...

Gary

P.S. A stray thought: since all Scotch or most of it anyway is aged in ex-bourbon barrels, could the charcoal taste imparted by the used barrel explain it? It would be stronger presumably in bourbon - thus why would someone who dislikes Scotch like bourbon? - but in bourbon you have wood sugars and tannins which cover over that taste to a considerable degree. In Scotch, there is no more red layer to enter the whiskey but the charcoal is still there and often they re-char the barrels. It sounds strange perhaps to suggest it, even to me, but stranger things have happened in the world of drink...